The Lab

Explorers of the Deep Seas

Science and people’s ingenuity and determination to explore what is out there never seizes to fascinate me. One of many examples of this is Virgin and the brilliance of Sir Richard Branson and his team.

I was intrigued when Virgin announced their first commercial flight to the moon and even more so when they announced a new project with a mission to explore the depths of our planet’s seas.

Five dives in five of the deepest parts of our oceans that have never been explored. A highly skilful team of scientists, a technological advanced submarine and one desire to conquer the oceans by overcoming crushing pressures and freezing temperatures obstacles. Now this is what I call an epic adventure! It is almost like a sci-fi movie only it is not!

Diving in the five deepest points of our oceans will start at the later part of 2011 and end in 2012. The Virgin Oceanic team will start from the Mariana Trench (deepest place on the planet) and will continue to the bottom of Puerto Rico Trench and complete the last three dives to the bottom of the Arctic, Southern and Indian oceans.

What I find rather amazing is that even today with all the technological advancements achieved, less than 3% of the bottom of our oceans has been explored and none of the deepest points of the planet. I can only imagine all the scientific benefits we will gain from studying all the specimens collected from these dives. This just comes to show the multi level benefits of this expedition.

This is a true adventure and epic exploration of our times! All hail to Virgin Oceanic!